1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a teaching installation enabling people to learn and practice the use of fire-fighting equipment.
2. Background Information
Installations for simulating fires have already been proposed.
Thus, document EP-B-0 146 465 relates to a movable installation (mounted on a truck) including an exercise box in which there are to be found means capable of putting the people to be trained or given practice under real conditions of performance. Those means consist in particular of pipework including vessels containing flammable fuel, a flammable gas burner, and an electrical cabinet suitable for being set on fire. The installation is fitted with a control and observation room.
That kind of installation gives complete satisfaction, both for training people to become specialists and for giving practice to people who have already been trained, for example professional firemen, since it reproduces fire hazard conditions that are very close to real conditions.
However, it is designed for actions that require the use of major fire-fighting equipment, and not specifically for training people in the use of fire extinguishers in the context of a fire that is just beginning.
Proposals have also been made for simulator systems that do not implement real fires, but that show previously-filmed scenes of fires in the forms of images projected onto a screen to be found in front of the person who is to be trained or given practice.
One such system is known from document FR-A-2 310 602, for example.
Images are projected onto the screen by a cinema projector, and means driven by an electronic computer make it possible, to some extent to cause the fire scene to vary.
The person participating in the exercise is given a carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) extinguisher, and projects real carbon dioxide onto the images, i.e. onto the screen. The screen is fitted with a set of sensors which, as a function of the screen tension, make it possible to locate the impact zone of the CO.sub.2 on the screen, and to deliver corresponding information to the computer which then modifies the way in which the fire images visible on the screen vary, assuming that the way in which the person handles the fire extinguisher does not comply with a predetermined sequence.
That known system which already provides a degree of interaction between the behavior of the person responsible for extinguishing the fire and the way in which the behavior of the fire varies suffers from the drawback of using up carbon dioxide, and of requiring means for storing and supplying said gas.
Another drawback of that known system results from the fact that the message given by the sensor is a function of screen tension, which is rather imprecise since it depends not only on the position of the point of impact, but also on the distance between the operator and the screen; it is therefore not possible to locate the zone of impact accurately and reliably.
Finally, projecting cinema images cannot provide interactivity that is real and complete, nor can it respond in a manner that is rapid and with multiple different variations in the fire scenes that are projected.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,124 relates to simulation apparatus for practice in fire-fighting.
That apparatus includes a TV monitor (television screen) associated with a computer adapted to display on the screen images representing a fire. The person performing the exercise is given a dummy (modified) fire extinguisher that emits an infrared ray representing the direction of the virtual jet from the device; sensors located at the periphery of the screen are adapted to locate the impact zone. Ultrasonic detection means also serve to determine the distance between the screen and the nozzle of the modified fire extinguisher. This information is transmitted to the computer which causes the images of the fire to vary accordingly. Thus, if the fire extinguisher is handled properly, the fire will go out. Otherwise, if it is handled wrongly, then the fire will continue, and may be get worse.
That known apparatus suffers from two major drawbacks.
Firstly, the screen is small in size, given that it is a screen of the CRT type. It is therefore not possible to display an ordinary fire thereon at life size, such that the amplitudes of the movements and the handling operations that the person needs to perform are quite wrong, and thus not representative of a real situation.
Secondly, the only action that the user needs to perform is to make use of a fire extinguisher. No broader behavior is required of the user, and as a result the applicability of that known apparatus is relatively limited from an educational point of view.
In this respect, it should be observed that when confronted with a fire that is just starting, it is often essential to take certain prior precautions even before using a fire extinguisher on the fire itself. Thus, for example, if the fire is in an electrical cabinet, the first thing to be done is to disconnect the electricity supply.
Otherwise, the procedure for extinguishing the fire will be ineffective.